Journalism

Over the past generation, journalism has been slowly swallowed. The ascendant media companies of our era don’t think of themselves as heirs to a great ink-stained tradition. Some like to compare themselves to technology firms. This redefinition isn’t just a bit of fashionable branding. As Silicon Valley has infiltrated the profession, journalism has come to unhealthily depend on the big tech companies, which now supply journalism with an enormous percentage of its audience—and, therefore, a big chunk of its revenue.

Dependence generates desperation—a mad, shameless chase to gain clicks through Facebook, a relentless effort to game Google’s algorithms. It leads media outlets to sign terrible deals that look like self-preserving necessities: granting Facebook the right to sell their advertising, or giving Google permission to publish articles directly on its fast-loading server. In the end, such arrangements simply allow Facebook and Google to hold these companies ever tighter.

In the US, roughly nine-in-ten adults (93%) ever get news online (either via mobile or desktop), and the online space has become a host for the digital homes of both legacy news outlets and new, “born on the web” news outlets. Digital advertising revenue across all digital entities (beyond just news) continues to grow, with technology companies playing a large role in the flow of both news and revenue.

Digital-native news outlets are also adopting other outreach and engagement methods. Fully 97% of these outlets offer newsletters, and 92% have an official presence on Apple News. Three-quarters, meanwhile, release podcasts and 61% allow comments on their articles. These outlets are also highly likely to use social media as part of their outreach. Nearly all have official pages or accounts on Facebook (100%), Twitter (100%), YouTube (97%) and Instagram (92%). Far fewer (25%) have an official channel or account on Snapchat.

On the whole, the news offerings of US public broadcasters have been marked by relative financial stability and, in the past year, audience growth. The top 20 NPR-affiliated public radio stations (by listenership) had on average a total weekly listenership of about 10 million in 2016, up from about 9 million in 2015. (This includes listeners for NPR programming as well as original or other syndicated content aired on these stations.)

NPR’s digital platforms continue to be an important part of its reach. Both the NPR News app, which offers livestreams from individual stations and digital content, and the newer NPR One app, which offers a stream of individual shows and podcasts, have shown steady growth across devices in the average number of total completed sessions each month. The financial picture for news outlets in public broadcasting appears to be strong both locally and nationally, even showing some improvement year over year. At the national level, NPR increased its total operating revenue in 2016 to $213 million, up 9% from 2015 levels. PRI saw gains as well, rising 26% to about $22 million in total revenue for 2016. APM’s total revenue, on the other hand, went down 6% year over year, accounting for $126 million in 2016. At the local public radio level, an analysis of the public filings provided by the 125 largest news-oriented licensees (organizations that operate local public radio stations) shows overall steady revenue. Between 2014 and 2015 – the last year for which reliable data are available – total revenue for this group remained relatively flat at $807 million.

Many black-oriented newspapers – some more than a century old – have seen a slow decline in circulation in recent years, mirroring the overall decline in newspaper circulation. Both print and television Hispanic media, on the other hand, have enjoyed relative strength over the last decade, but that growth has now slowed. As the two largest Spanish-language television networks in the US, Univision and Telemundo are key providers of news for Spanish speakers. While viewership for some shows on these networks was roughly flat or even increased in 16, viewership for each network’s largest news program decreased at least slightly.

Black-oriented newspapers are a long-standing minority news sector in the US. The black press trade association (National Newspaper Publishers Association) currently lists around 150 members on its website, but few of these papers have regularly audited circulation figures, making it difficult to acquire audience figures for the sector as a whole. There are, however, some black-oriented newspapers – most of which are weekly or semiweekly – with recent circulation data available through the main audit bureaus that can serve as indicators. Among these, the data show that African American newspapers with a substantial amount of paid circulation either lost circulation or held steady from 2015 to 2016. For a number of mostly free-distribution newspapers, circulation results were more mixed.

The Economist is the most trusted news source in America, while President Donald Trump, Yahoo and BuzzFeed rank near the bottom, according to a new survey from the University of Missouri’s Reynolds Journalism Institute. The weekly magazine published in the UK is more trusted than a variety of American mainstream news organizations, according to the Trusting News Project survey. Public television, Reuters, BBC and NPR round out the top five most-trusted sources. Another British news organization, The Guardian, ranks sixth, proving that many American’s don’t trust news from their own country. In fact, Donald Trump himself is among the least-trusted sources, with only Occupy Democrats, BuzzFeed, Breitbart and social media ranking lower than the president.

[Commentary] President Donald Trump is again attacking the media Aug 7, and his broadsides carry a newly ominous edge: He is both faulting the media for allegedly downplaying the size and intensity of support from his base and accusing them of trying to deliberately weaken that support for him. "The Trump base is far bigger & stronger than ever before (despite some phony Fake News polling). Look at rallies in Penn, Iowa, Ohio......" "Hard to believe that with 24/7 #Fake News on CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS, NYTIMES & WAPO, the Trump base is getting stronger!" the President tweeted.

Because President Trump is undermining our democratic norms and processes in so many ways, it is often easy to focus on each of them in isolation, rather than as part of the same larger story. But, taken together, they point to a possible climax in which Trump, cornered by revelations unearthed by Robert S. Mueller III’s probe and by ongoing media scrutiny, seeks to rally his supporters behind the idea that this outcome represents not the imposition of accountability by functioning civic institutions, but rather an effort to steal the election from him — and from them.

Former CNN commentator Kayleigh McEnany hosted a video "news" program over the weekend on President Donald Trump's Facebook page. "Thank you for joining us as we provide you the news of the week from Trump Tower here in New York," McEnany said at the beginning of the segment.

During the video, McEnany, appearing in front featuring Trump's campaign logo and website, touted the recent jobs report. The economy added 209,000 jobs in July and the unemployment rate fell to 4.3 percent, the Commerce Department reported Aug 4. Trump hailed the strong numbers last week, saying he had "only just begun." "President Trump has clearly steered the economy back in the right direction," McEnany said in the segment.

The News Media Alliance didn’t like what it heard out of the Justice Department about potentially subpoenaing media outlets in the ongoing investigations of leaks. "The News Media Alliance strongly condemns these statements, as they are an attempt to chill communications between the press and government officials," the group said. "The free flow of information to reporters is crucial in order to bring matters of great public importance to light. Threatening the use of subpoenas that could compel reporters to testify, and, in particular, to reveal the identity of a confidential source, will restrict the flow of information to reporters and ultimately to the public on matters of public interest, such as waste, fraud and abuse within the government and in the private sector." "The press provides a vital role in helping the public to hold the government accountable," said Alliance President David Chavern. "The Attorney General’s statements are an attempt to stifle communications between government officials and journalists which will ultimately keep the public in the dark.”

It's the White House's go-to pejorative when dismissing reports of internal power struggles as idle gossip: “palace intrigue.” The phrase conveys the idea that reporters covering President Trump and his advisers are more like reality TV addicts than real journalists — which is exactly how the White House wants them to be seen. But palace intrigue actually does matter. I asked a half dozen White House reporters to help explain why.

“Clearly what happens inside the White House reflects how policy is made,” said Fox News's John Roberts.

“Whoever has the president's ear has influence over policy because he doesn't have formed views on a variety of topics,” added Politico's Tara Palmeri. “As [chief economic adviser] Gary Cohn said during the foreign trip, [Trump] is learning. His teachers are whoever has access to him. Therefore the proxy wars really do influence policy that affects everyday Americans.”

Remember Judith Miller? She is the former New York Times reporter who in 2005 spent almost three months in jail because she refused to identify the government source who leaked the name of CIA operative Valerie Plame. Attorney General Jeff Sessions raised the prospect that more journalists will have to make the same decision Miller did — out the source or go to jail — when he said the Justice Department is “reviewing policies affecting media subpoenas” as part of the Trump administration’s effort to crack down on leaks.

Miller, now a Fox News contributor, wrote in 2016 about how Mike Pence, then a Republican congressman from Indiana, invited her to his office upon her release from jail and promised to push for a shield law. She said, "True to his word, Mr. Pence introduced the 'Free Flow of Information Act' with Rep Rick Boucher (D-VA). 'As a conservative who believes in limited government,' he said after reintroducing the legislation, which failed the first time he proposed it, 'I believe the only check on government power in real time is a free and independent press.'" In 2007, the Columbia Journalism Review called Mike Pence “journalism’s best ally in the fight to protect anonymous sources.” In the end, however, Pence failed to secure passage of his shield law, and there is still none in place. That is one reason that Sessions now has the power to subpoena journalists.